Art in an Octagon: The Schinkel Pavilion Berlin

The Schinkel Pavilon in Berlin-Mitte is perhaps Germany?s most unconventional art association. Where GDR nomenklatura once held cocktail parties, now Douglas Gordon, Cyprien Gaillard and Isa Genzken hold exhibitions. ... more

In
the context of the attacks on London, the French writer and essayist
Pascal Brucknerwarns of a widespread European "pacification rhetoric" around the terrorist threat and the denial of it. His first
reaction to the most recent attacks: "Is this due to English
isolationism? Or is it due to a tradition which has already demonstrated itself with respect to Nazism? At any rate, Great
Britain is as unwilling to bow down to the apocalyptic destructive
will today as it was yesterday. It opposes in the 'Churchill
way'. In contrast to the Spanish after the attacks in Atocha, the
English react cold-blooded. They don't demand from their government
that their troops on the American side in Iraq be pulled out.
(...) On top of that, Blair together with his people, continues a
tradition of freedom for which I suspect continental Europe has lost
its taste." (More about Bruckner here and here)

Foreign Affairs, 01.07.2005 (USA)

Robert
S. Leiken describes the new nightmare of American security authorities:
the mujahideen with European passport: "In smoky coffeehouses in
Rotterdam and Copenhagen, makeshift prayer halls in Hamburg and
Brussels, Islamic bookstalls in Birmingham and 'Londonistan', and the
prisons of Madrid, Milan, and Marseilles, immigrants or their
descendants are volunteering for jihad against the West. It was a Dutch
Muslim of Moroccan descent, born and socialized in Europe, who murdered
the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam last November. A Nixon Center
study of 373 mujahideen in western Europe and North America between
1993 and 2004 found more than twice as many Frenchmen as Saudis and
more Britons than Sudanese, Yemenites, Emiratis, Lebanese, or Libyans.
Fully a quarter of the jihadists it listed were western European
nationals - eligible to travel visa-free to the United States."

Plus - Minus, 09.07.2005 (Poland)

The
philosopher Agnes Hellerattacks "some well-known American and German
intellectuals", who seek to explain terrorism either as the rebellion
of the poor against the rich, the losers against the winners of capitalist globalisation, or as an almost natural reaction against
American imperialism. "The people behind global terror are themselves
global capitalists, just like Hitler was supported by German
industrialists and financiers. Anti-capitalism merely serves as a
slogan to direct massive resentment against the rich and to wage a
racist or religious war. Many of them are frustrated intellectuals â
young people who want to be remarkable in a very unremarkable world,
with big ambitions but little talent, or whose careers were hindered
for other reasons." (More about Agnes Heller here and here)

L`Espresso, 14.07.2005 (Italy)

The
Polish writerAndrzej Stasiukdoes not understand why everyone is afraid
of the Polish plumber. He wonders a bit about the greater symbolic
importance of a professional class, which only was powerful under
communism. "He took a down-payment, one made out a time for him to come
but he never came then. He came when it suited him. For example after a
week. Manky, eating a meal, consumed by the need for a shower, the
occupants received him nonetheless like a saviour. They offered him
coffee, food and alcohol and worshipped him. The plumber ate, drank,
listened to all the flattering remarks and then went about his work
with a worthy lethargy. He screwed around somewhere, took something
off, caused a disastrous flood in the kitchen or in the bathroom and
then suddenly, having lost interest, claimed to be missing a part, left
the place an promised to come back the next day, only to return a week
later, to take another payment."

The Spectator, 09.07.2005 (UK)

The
genocide of the Indians, lynchings of blacks, Pinochet, the Holocaust,
and now Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib â the monument at Ground Zero is the
expression of an "Ultimate Guilty Complex", writes Mark Steyn, who
would have liked to see more Western self-confidence at the site. "I
never cared for the Twin Towers, which were never anything more than a
couple of oversized slabs of Seventies tat. But once the Islamonutters
had taken them down and the various 'internationally acclaimed
architects' began submitting designs of ever more limpid tastefulness,
I decided Donald Trump had it right: rebuild the ugly muthas but make 'em taller, and stick a giant extended middle finger on the top of each
one, or maybe pose that Saddam statue hanging sideways off the roof so
heâs being toppled in perpetuity. The latest hastily revised design for
the new Freedom Tower eliminates the 'life-affirming vertical gardens'
and other milquetoast features proposed by the architect Daniel
Libeskind but itâs still a feeble un-American wimp-out."

Revista de Libros, 08.07.2005 (Chile)

Peruvian
authorAlfredo Bryce Echeniquemeditates on the past and future of the
Latin American city: "While in North America, the original core of the
city, the symbol of colonisation, was represented by the 'fort' as we
know it from Wild West movies, behind whose walls settlers barricaded
themselves and were in no way dependent on local labour, the founders
of South American cities â the representatives of the
Counter-Reformation and the Inquisiion, Catholicism and aristocracy â
gathered the masses of natives â their future servants â on a large
square in the centre, and let them feel the might of their new masters
on their own bodies." The fast growing South American cities of the
present, "which defy state control and all attempts at urban
rationality," the main role model is Miami â now the de facto capital
city of Latin America."

Elet es Irodalom, 08.07.2005 (Hungary)

Hungarian
writerGyörgy Konradmakes a plea for new ideas on European (and the
EU): "The substance of Europe is curiosity (perhaps the most venal sin
and the most charming virtue), the hunger to learn and research, the
desire to understand, the hedonism of the brain. What's special about
Europe is the lively dialogue between tradition and innovation, the
removal of the books from the monasteries during the Gutenberg
revolution, the emergence of independent islands of intellectuals...
Through works of art, we are able to understand other peoples. Reading
novels is a well known method of practising empathy. If you want a
Union, then you should put yourselves in the shoes of other Europeans,
for example by reading their literature. Let us recognise our own
complexity, so that we can enjoy and amuse ourselves!"

Al Ahram Weekly, 07.07.2005 (Egypt)

That
hiphop has transformed itself from a local Afro-American subculture to
global youth culture and a economic powerhouse is now a commonplace.
What's new is Hesham Samy Abdel-Alim's approach. Politically he's more
outspoken than subtle, but nonetheless refreshing. In an lengthy
article he discusses the worldwide march of hiphop and the
post-traditional Islamic identity: "What we are witnessing is a massive
movement of Muslim artists who are networked around the world through
the power of hip hop culture." Calling the resulting community as a
"transglobal hiphop umma", he describes its representatives â from the
New York underground icon Mos Def to Palestinian rappers â as the
"avant-garde of modern Islam". He finishes by asking: "Will this new
knowledge transform our view about the impact of popular culture,
particularly hip hop culture, in constructing an Islam appropriate to
the needs of contemporary society?"

Die Weltwoche, 07.07.2005 (Switzerland)

Writing
under a pseudonym, Katharina Wille-Gut describes in good-humoured
detail the arduous life of the noble housewives in Zurich's "Gold
Coast". "Concerning partnership, we still-youngish Gold Coast Women are
pretty passionate. The result is fewer separations and divorces than in
Oberglatt or Emmenbrücke. At worst, when marital crises get completely
out of hand, we have a look at the job market, and flirt with financial
independence. With crushing results. For a single Thierry-Mugler suit â
I worked this out years ago â I would have to work for two entire
weeks. My marriage isn't that bad, I said to myself over a glass of
champagne at the Savoy, quit the job and devoted myself from then on to
successfully performing my wifely tasks" (here the book).

The New York Times Magazine, 10.07.2005 (USA)

James
Bennet writes a long portrait on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad,
wondering whether he really stands behind a policy of openness and
democracy, or if he's just a traditional Arab dictator whose Western
mask is slowly crumbling. "Although he is viewed in Washington as
possibly a mere figurehead, he says he is just at the point of
consolidating control by removing the so-called old guard of his
father's government and installing change-minded technocrats. While his
Syrian critics see him as trapped in the system created by his father,
or complicit in it, or simply uncertain what to do, Assad insists he
has a plan but is implementing it at a rate that Syria can manage,
given its turbulent past and social divides. In any event, he is acting
like a man with plenty of time."

Tuesday 27 March, 2012

The Republicans are waging a war against women, the New York Magazine declares. Perhaps it's because women are so unabashed about reading porn in public - that's according to publisher Beatriz de Moura in El Pais Semanal, at least. Polityka remembers Operation Reinhard. Tensions are growing between Poland and Hungary as Victor Orban spreads his influence, prompting ruminations on East European absurdity from both Elet es Irodalom and salon.eu.sk. Wired is keeping its eyes peeled on the only unassuming sounding Utah Data Center.read more

Tuesday 20 March, 2012

In Telerama, Benjamin Stora grabs hold of the Algerian boomerang. In Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic tells the Venetians that they should be very scared of Chinese money. Bela Tarr tells the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Berliner Zeitung that his "Turin Horse", which ends in total darkness was not intended to depress. In die Welt, historian Dan Diner cannot agree with Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands": National Socialism was not like Communism - because of Auschwitz.
read more

Tuesday 13 March, 2012

In Perfil author Martin Kohn explains why Argentina would be less
Argentinian if it won back the Falklands. In Il sole 24 ore, Armando
Massarenti describes the Italians as a pack of illiterates sitting atop a
treasure trove. Polityka introduces the Polish bestseller of the season:
Danuta Walesa's autobiography. L'Express looks into the state of
Japanese literature one year after Fukushima.
read more

Tuesday 6 March, 2012

In Merkur,Stephan Wackwitz muses on poetry and absurdity in Tiflis. Outlook India happens on the 1980s Indian answer to "The Artist". Bloomberg Businessweek climbs into the cuckoo's nest with the German Samwar brothers. Salon.eu.sk learns how to line the pockets of a Slovenian politician. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Navid Kermanireports back impressed from the Karachi Literature Festival. read more

Tuesday 21 February, 2012

The New Republic sees a war being waged in the USA against women's rights. For Rue89, people who put naked women on the front page of a newspaper should not be surprised if they go to jail. In Elet es Irodalom, historian Mirta Nunez Daaz-Balart explains why the wounds of the Franco regime never healed. In Eurozine, Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev see little in common between the protests in Russia and those in the Arab world.
read more

Tuesday 7 February, 2012

Poland's youth have taken to the streets to protest against Acta and Donald Tusk has listened, Polityka explains. Himal and the Economist report on the repression of homosexuality in the Muslim world. Outlook India doesn't understand why there will be no "Dragon Tattoo" film in India. And in Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic looks at how close the Serbs are to eating grass.
read more

Tuesday 31 January, 2012

In the French Huffington Post, philosopher Catherine Clement explains why the griot Youssou N'Dour had next to no chance of becoming Senegal's president. Peter Sloterdijk (in Le Monde) and Umberto Eco (in Espresso) share their thoughts about forgetting. Al Ahram examines the post-electoral depression of Egypt's young revolutionaries. And in Eurozine, Kenan Malik defends freedom of opinion against those who want the world to go to sleep.
read more

Tuesday 24 January, 2012

Il Sole Ore weeps at the death of a laughing Vincenzo Consolo. In Babelia, Javier Goma Lanzon cries: Praise me, please! Osteuropa asks: Hungaria, quo vadis? The newborn French Huffington Post heralds the birth of the individual in the wake of the Arab Spring. Outlook India is infuriated by the cowardliness of Indian politicians in the face of religious fanatics.
read more

Tuesday 17 January, 2012

In Nepszabadsag the dramatist György Spiro recognises 19th century France in Hungary today. Peter Nadas, though, in Lettre International and salon.eu.sk, is holding out hope for his country's modernisation. In Open Democracy, Boris Akunin and Alexei Navalny wish Russia was as influential as America - or China. And in Lettras Libras, Peter Hamill compares Mexico with a mafia film by the Maquis de Sade.
read more

Tuesday 10 January, 2012

Are books about to become a sort of author-translator wiki, asks Il Sole 24 Ore. Rue 89 reports on the "Tango Wars" in downtown Buenos Aires. Elet es Irodalom posits a future for political poetry. In Merkur, Mikhail Shishkin encounters Russian pain in Switzerland. Die Welt discovers the terror of the new inside the collapse of the old in Andrea Breth's staging of Isaak Babel's "Maria". And Poetry Foundation waits for refugees in Lampedusa. read more

Tuesday 13 December, 2011

Andre Glucksman in Tagesspiegel looks at the impact of the Putinist plague on Russia and Europe. In Letras Libras Martin Caparros celebrates the Kindle as book. György Dalos has little hope that Hungary's intellectuals can help get their country out of the doldrums. Le Monde finds Cioran with his head up the skirt of a young German woman. The NYT celebrates the spread of N'Ko,the West African text messaging alphabet.read more